3 Key Musical Elements Help Us "Get Into the Groove"

On a scale of one to five, how much do you like to dance? Are there certain songs that fill you with a rush of intense positive emotions and make it impossible for you not to move your body? How often do you experience the sensation of groove?

Tomas Matthews and colleagues from Concordia University in Montreal recently asked a series of questions like this in a global online survey for their new paper, “The Sensation of Groove Is Affected by the Interaction of Rhythmic and Harmonic Complexity.” In the lexicon of musicology, “groove” describes music that elicits a combination of pleasure and wanting to move.

For many people, an infectious groove makes it impossible for them not to tap their fingers and toes while sitting in a chair. For those of us who really love to dance, certain songs bring us to our feet so we can lose ourselves in the pure joy of moving to the groove. Even if you don't publicly self-identify as someone who loves to dance, are there any songs that make you dance like no one’s watching behind closed doors?

Recently, Netflix viewers got to see each quirky character from the "dysfunctional family of superheroes" in The Umbrella Academy dance like no one's watching to the one-hit-wonder of Tiffany’s 1987 chart-topping song, “I Think We’re Alone Now."

Even though I know it's ridiculously cliché and painfully obvious, the first thing that sprang to mind when I read about the new study by Matthews et al. about the sensation of groove is Madonna’s 1985 signature song, “Get Into the Groove,” from Desperately Seeking Susan.

The Queen of Pop sings:

“Music can be such a revelation, dancing around you feel the sweet sensation. Only when I'm dancing can I feel this free. At night, I lock the doors, where no one else can see. I'm tired of dancing here all by myself. Tonight, I wanna dance with someone else. Come on! Get up on your feet. Yeah, step to the beat. You’ve got to... get into the groove."

Until recently, the exact combination of musical elements (e.g., rhythm, harmony, melody, degree of syncopation, etc.) that make certain songs more likely to create the sensation of groove has been an enigma. Therefore, as part of his doctoral thesis, Tomas Matthews set out to deconstruct and isolate the key ingredients that are part of the "sensation of groove" phenomenon. As mentioned, these findings (Matthews et al., 2019) were recently published in the journal PLOS ONE.

"In the psychology literature, groove is defined as ‘the pleasurable desire to move to music.’ You want to move, dance, or tap along to it, and that feels good,” Matthews said in a statement. "Groove is a combination of pleasure and wanting to move.” According to Matthews, there's a sweet spot within the dynamic interplay between harmonic complexity, rhythm, and just the right amount of syncopation that makes most people experience the sensation of groove.

As a universal way to investigate what makes people want to groove, Matthews and colleagues designed an online survey that asked respondents around the world specific questions about groove-eliciting music. Matthews et al.’s groove study focused primarily on two ratings: (1) pleasure and (2) wanting to move. Ratings correlated with these two measurements were used to assess the degree that rhythm, harmony, and syncopation work together to influence the so-called “sensation of groove."

Just over 200 hundred men and women between the ages of 17 and 79 (with an average age of 34.74) completed the survey. Participants self-reported being from six different continents, but the majority of survey respondents were from Europe and North America, which may have influenced the findings from an ethnomusicology perspective. (See "Dance Songs Dissolve Differences that Divide Us.")

While taking the online survey, study participants listened to three short musical sequences with low, medium, and high levels of harmonic and rhythmic complexity. These musical interludes incorporated various rumba claves, which are specific rhythmic patterns used in Afro-Cuban music for temporal organization.

Online survey respondents rated each of the three musical sequences on a 1-5 scale based on how much pleasure they experienced listening to a snippet and how much it made them want to move. Interestingly, the researchers found that medium syncopation levels combined with medium levels of harmonic complexity were the highest-rated combinations across the board.

The researchers identified a Goldilocks-like groove zone that reflected a typical inverted-U curve. For example, too much syncopation and harmonic complexity made listeners feel discombobulated—which resulted in lower pleasure ratings and less desire to dance. Conversely, too little harmonic complexity or syncopation made the music seem dull and uninspiring. The sweet spot that seemed "just right" for creating the sensation of groove was medium amounts of syncopation and low- to medium-complexity harmonies.

"We think that harmony is raising the listeners' pleasure level, and that in turn makes them want to move more. Groove is a combination of pleasure and wanting to move, and harmony's main effect is on the pleasurable aspect of groove," Matthews said.

The authors sum up these findings in their paper's conclusion:

“Rhythm showed a strong inverted U-shaped relationship with both pleasure and wanting to move ratings while harmony did not. Consistent with our hypotheses, rhythm and harmony interacted such that medium complexity chords enhanced the inverted-U effect of rhythm complexity, particularly for pleasure ratings. Mediation analysis showed that rhythm directly affected both wanting to move and pleasure while the effect of harmony on wanting to move was driven by pleasure. Together these results suggest that rhythm plays a primary role in generating the sensation of groove, with harmony providing a modulatory role through its effect on pleasure."

Additionally, as would be expected, the researchers found that “for all participants, interest in dance was associated with higher wanting to move ratings.” Matthews speculates that people who really enjoy dancing tend to have a stronger association between physical movement and listening to groove music. Anecdotally, I can corroborate this conclusion.

I first realized that I love to dance—and am a highly sensitive person (HSP) when it comes to the sensation of groove—as a 9-year-old in 1975. Every weekend throughout the mid-1970s, I'd glue myself to the radio and wait with bated breath as Casey Kasem counted down America's Top 40. After the number-one song in the land was revealed, I'd turn off the radio and start nagging mom to take me directly to Woolworth's so I could spend every penny of my allowance buying vinyl 45's. Then, I'd come home and blast this groove-inducing music on a turntable and stereo system in my bedroom while dancing around like a whirling dervish seeking transcendent ecstasy.

For me, the pure bliss of listening to these 1970s pop songs at a potentially deafening volume was orgasmically pleasurable. This music filled me with the uncontrollable urge to move my body. Eventually, my parents bought me a big, clunky pair of sound-proof headphones from Radio Shack (that dad jury-rigged with an 18-foot extension cord) so I could blast Hot 100 music and dance around my bedroom without disturbing the entire neighborhood.

In closing, I've curated a Top 10 list of some of these songs from around 1975 that (for me) never fail to elicit the sensation of groove. Because I'm not a musicologist or musician, I have absolutely no idea if any of these songs fit the formula and inverted-U pattern of harmonic complexity, rhythm, and syncopation identified by Matthews et al. (2019). Nevertheless, hopefully watching these videos will fill you with pleasure and make you want to move.

In addition to making you feel good and boosting your mood, dancing around to these songs is a perfect high-intensity incidental physical activity (HIIPA) workout. Lastly, for any pop music trivia fans, I've included the peak chart position and date from Billboard's Hot 100 archives for each song.

Top-10 Chart-Topping "Sensation of Groove" Playlist (Circa 1975)

"Sky High" by Jigsaw (Peaked at #3 on January 6, 1975)

"Right Back Where We Started From" by Maxine Nightingale (Peaked at #2 on May 6, 1976)

"Jive Talkin'" by the Bee Gees (Peaked at #1 on August 9, 1975)

"Island Girl" by Elton John (Peaked at #1 on November 1, 1975)

"Mamma Mia" by ABBA (Peaked at #32* on July 4, 1975) *Hit #1 outside the U.S.

"Lady Marmalade" by Labelle (Peaked at #1 on March 29, 1975)

"The Hustle" by McCoy (Peaked at #1 on July 26, 1975)

"That's The Way (I Like It)" by K.C. and The Sunshine Band (Peaked at #1 on Nov. 22, 1975)

"Philadelphia Freedom" by Elton John (Peaked at #1 on April 12, 1975)

"Rock the Boat" by The Hues Corporation (Peaked at #1 on July 6, 1974)